Gator Safety Eager for Arkansas Challenge

Larry Vettel

10/14/2009

After five games against teams that were admittedly passing game challenged the Florida secondary will get its first major test Saturday when the Arkansas Razorbacks come to town. Arkansas leads the SEC with 318 passing yards a game under the direction of Head Coach Bobby Petrino and talented QB Ryan Mallett.

The Hogs have thrown for 15 TD this season while surrendering just four INT.They have excellent balance in the passing game with six receivers who are over the 100-yard mark.

Florida free safety Major Wright says he and his teammates are excited to face the Arkansas passing game. He talks about Mallett and the receivers and knows the Gators will have to be on their game.

Florida secondary and safeties Coach Chuck Heater has a lot of respect for the Arkansas scheme that Petrino has installed and says it's much better this year with Mallett running the show. Last year Florida beat Arkansas in Fayetteville 38-7 but the Hogs still managed 361 yards of offense.

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Major Wright

On facing a downfield passing team:

"The DBs are very excited about this. We started off with overlapping and playing the quarterback and doing some things different."

On The Razorbacks' offense:

"They're a pretty good offensive team. The quarterback is pretty good and the running back, Michael Smith is pretty good and they have some good receivers. Last year they were pretty good, but they're better. This quarterback is strong, big (and has) good accuracy. He loves to throw the ball."

On the importance of getting the seniors a homecoming win"

"It's very important. It means a lot to us and to them. For us (We have to) go out and do out jobs so they can go out with a victory."

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Coach Chuck Heater

On the Arkansas offense:

"It's the best offensive we've faced and it's the best overall skill we've faced in my opinion. It's a real challenge for our defense. The schematic, the way they do things is impressive. You can see the scheme and what they are trying to get done and it's a challenge for us. We felt that way a year ago. We're excited about it, but it will be a challenge for us."

"Well he's got a tremendous arm so he can throw over the top of coverage. If you're a little bit shallow he can go over the top of you and he's very aggressive in throwing the ball down the football field. But also he makes all the other types of throws. They do both. They throw it down the field but they also can make the finesse throws. He's very good and they do a good job coaching him.

On what they hope to do against him:

"You hope to get him out of rhythm. A guy who's in rhythm, like any quarterback that can sit back there in rhythm their success rate goes up way high. We like to be able to be disruptive, but that's always easy to say. Who doesn't want to do that? Being able to actually execute that on game day is the challenge."